I Do, Cherish You
by SCLindseySC
Summary: Her marriage to Luis Alcazar was supposed to unite the Zacchara and Alcazar Crime Families. But Claudia has other plans that just might even involve love.
1. Chapter 1: Wedded Bliss

**Chapter 1: Wedded Bliss**

April 6, 1996

"Now, by the power vested in me by the state of New York, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride," Father Venitilli intoned the words that Claudia Zacchara had heard in her nightmares for months. However, instead of waking up screaming, Claudia found herself pressing her lips to the man across from her with a sense of relief. She had married Bobby and perhaps in time Luis Alcazar might really be only a distant memory. Perhaps…

"I will always cherish you," Bobby whispered as they separated from a kiss passionate enough to make Claudia look forward to her wedding night, but chaste enough to keep her mother in law from having heart palpitations or one of her other hysterical ailments.

Isabella Mancusi was already anxious enough about the timing of their wedding. She didn't understand how her son could marry a woman less than two months after meeting her. She really didn't understand when Claudia swore she wasn't pregnant. She wasn't, which was a blessing of great proportions since it certainly wouldn't have been Bobby's baby if she had been.

Bobby had claimed he had to marry her post haste because he couldn't live without her any longer. Claudia had thought that was almost as lame an explanation as the lines he had fed her when they first met. However, somehow Isabella Mancusi had accepted that so Claudia had held her tongue.

As they processed out of the church Claudia recalled their first meeting with a smile. At the time she hadn't realized the night would change her life, but it had.

_February 10, 1996 _

_At the bar in the Montecito, Claudia Zacchara fiddled with the swizzle stick in her rum and coke which was slightly heavy on the rum even though she still wasn't quite twenty-one. There had to be some advantages to being a Zacchara, because there were sure a lot of disadvantages. Luis Alcazar was one of those disadvantages._

_In a word the man was insane. Claudia wondered if that was why her father enjoyed doing business with him. Just like her father, Luis was rash, short tempered, and violent. He was also way too old for her. He had just turned thirty-six, she wouldn't be twenty one until October. Still Claudia was about to be trapped in an arranged marriage with a man who terrified her. Their union would unite the Zacchara and Alcazar territories and Claudia was sure it included something on the side for her father's attorney, Trevor Lansing, because he was definitely in support of it._

_In a weak, and overly optimistic, moment, Claudia had attempted to tell her father how much Luis scared her, that he had forced himself on her. For half of a second she had almost believed her father had cared. But then he had said, but once you are married then it will no longer be considered rape and any disillusions that her father was something less than a pathologic merciless evil man were quickly dispelled._

_Once you're married, it's no longer rape, the words echoed through Claudia's head as she took another gulp of her drink. _

_"__Siete troppo bello per gridare," the dark-haired man sitting beside her said._

_Claudia looked over at him carefully. He had olive skin and slightly rugged features but they were refined enough that he looked more handsome than coarse. "I'm not crying," she protested in English rather than the Italian he had addressed her with._

_He reached over and wiped away the single tear that had escaped down her cheek. "Così conoscete l'italiano, la lingua di amore," he said._

_Claudia grimaced at his line, and she was sure that was what it was. Yes, she knew Italian, it was her family's native tongue. She supposed from the look of her new suitor that it might have been his as well. Plus, she had just spent two years at finishing school in Milan. Honestly it had been the best time of her life. She loved Italy, the art, the fashion, the food, the wine, the absence of Trevor and her father. It had been quite close to bliss, well until Luis Alcazar had shown up._

_According to Trevor, the pathologic Zacchara family attorney, when Luis had forced himself upon her he had merely been ensuring that all terms of the agreement were to his satisfaction. Claudia shuddered as she remembered that horrible night. She shuddered again as she realized she still had not escaped the nightmare, and if she married Luis she never would. Taking a deep breath, she said, "Così pensate che conosciate che cosa l'amore è?_

_Her new suitor merely smiled and said, "Forse lo ho bisogno di mostrarlo."_

_"__Ma neppure non conosco il vostro nome," Claudia protested as a slight smile formed on her lips._

_"__Sono Bobby Mancusi e siete la donna che più bella mi sono incontrato mai."_

Claudia still saw Bobby's words as exaggerations and lame pick up lines. She also saw that Bobby did cherish her. That was why he was marrying her to protect her from her father and Luis Alcazar. Perhaps it wasn't quite the fairy tale that Bobby had told his mother, but, no other man had ever sworn to love, cherish, and protect her. She trusted Bobby and that had to count for something. Perhaps it counted for everything.

***Italian Translations if you want them:

-You are too beautiful to cry.

-So you know Italian, the language of love.

-So you think you know what love is?

-Maybe I need you to show me…

-But I don't even know your name!

-I am Bobby Mancusi and you are the most beautiful woman I have ever met.***


	2. Chapter 2: A Matter of Trust

**Chapter 2: A Matter of Trust**

July 8, 1997

Claudia Zacchara Mancusi felt shaky and unsteady as she raised her head from the toilet bowl. Her head swum and her abdominal muscle ached. She was far too weak to do anything but collapse down onto the tiles of the bathroom floor. At least they were cool.

XXXXXXXX

Roberto Mancusi let himself into a quiet house. It was only six o'clock but he knew his wife hadn't been feeling well and was likely sleeping. Unlike his mother, who was always suffering from some largely hysterical malady, Claudia rarely got sick so the fact that this latest virus had kept her laid up in bed for over a week left him concerned. For his own protection, Claudia had suggested he stay in the guest room as she didn't want to infect him. He had appreciated her concern for the first few days but then his own concern for her took over.

The night before he had held his wife as she vomited and then shivered under three heavy quilts while the thermometer registered 104.2. He had begged her to allow him to take her to emergency but she had assured him it was just a virus she was sure. Unfortunately, he was anything but sure.

XXXXXXXX

Claudia Zacchara Mancusi tensed when she heard the door open. _Bobby was home! _Unfortunately, try as she might, Claudia knew she was way past being able to pull herself together. She was too weak to get up off her bathroom floor so perhaps it was just time to trust him to take care of her. That was hard because far too many others had taken advantage of her. She tried to assure herself that her husband was different from all the other men. He had pledged to love, honor, and cherish her. She was just going to have to trust that because she didn't have a choice.

Claudia felt Bobby kneel down beside her and scoop her up from the floor. His lips brushed gently across her forehead. "You aren't feeling better are you, sweetheart?" he asked.

Claudia merely shook her head as Bobby gently tucked her back into their bed. She clutched at her abomen as if that might calm the latest wave of cramps. It didn't. Her head swum more, then everything went black.

XXXXXXXX

Roberto Mancini paced uncomfortably in the waiting area outside the Emergency Department at Mercy Hospital. It had only been a little over a year that he had pledged in sickness and in health. He was not ready for Claudia's death to bring them apart.

_March 1, 1996_

_Roberto Mancusi was surprised at how nervous he was as he slipped the velvet box into Claudia's palm._

_"What is this?" she asked._

_"The answer to your prayers. Open it!" he said._

_Slowly Claudia opened the box to reveal the ring. Her face lit up but faded quickly._

_Bobby wasn't sure what to make of her reaction. Red was her favorite color. He had commissioned the ring with a two-carat center heart shaped red diamond, flanked by another five carats. Could she possibly not like it? Was she uncomfortable that a man she had known for less than a month was proposing?_

_"Marry me? I know it seems sudden, but I do love you, and your father will have to allow it. The optics would be horrible if he refused."_

_"I can't ask you to do this," Claudia said._

_"You haven't. I want to do this," Bobby assured her._

_"I'm not sure what to say."_

_"Say yes!"_

_Claudia took another look at the ring. "This really is beautiful," she whispered._

_Bobby reached out and stroked her cheek with his index finger. "Not as beautiful as you," he said._

_Claudia laughed. "If I say yes, will you stop with the lame lines?" she asked._

_Bobby feigned injury. "Those are not lines but merely an expression of my admiration. I do cherish you," he said._

She had eventually accepted his proposal. They married a month later. He still loved every minute. He was still mulling over all of that when a nurse came out.

"Mr. Mancusi?" she called.

"Yes, my wife, how is she?"

"Dr. Mullens says she is in hypovolemic shock. She seems to be improving with fluids but she will need to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit."

"Of course, may I see her?" Bobby asked.

"Just for a few minutes. They will need to get her up to the ICU soon," the nurse said as she led him back into the Emergency Department.

Claudia looked so pale and fragile lying on the stretcher. Bobby gently brushed his lips across her forehead and took her right hand into both of his. "I'm right here, sweetheart," he whispered.

Claudia didn't respond to him. Bobby supposed he hadn't really expected her to. She still seemed to be burning up with fever she seemed to sleep uneasily as if she was uncomfortable. He was pretty sure she was and it broke his heart. "The doctors are really good here, Claudi they are going to take great care of you. You're going to get better. You'll see," Bobby said. He had to believe that.


	3. Chapter 3: Living on the Edge

**Chapter 3: Living on the Edge**

July 10, 1997

When Claudia Zacchara Mancusi awoke the first thing she noticed was how much she hurt. She ached all over just like that final beating from her father that had resulted in her being shipped off to live with Uncle Rudy at the Montecito Casino in Las Vegas right before her tenth birthday. Her childhood hadn't been pretty by any stretch of the imagination.

The next thing she realized was how weak she felt. Her attempt at sitting up in bed proved futile and as she quickly found herself collapsing back drenched in sweat feeling like her heart was pounding out of her chest as some alarm started to blare.

That got the attention of some woman in a long blue gown, mask, and gloves who turned from the counter by the sink and reached up to silence the alarm apparently coming from a monitor over Claudia's head. She frowned at Claudia and then barked, "Please just lie still, Mrs. Mancusi, as Dr. Thornhart tried to explain earlier you really need to just rest at this point!"

_Dr. Thornhart? Who the heck is Dr. Thornhart? _Claudia could only wonder. She was about to ask that when everything seemed to go black again.

XXXXXXXX

Dr. Ian Thornhart had spent twenty eight of his thirty years in Chicago so he was well aware that being responsible for Salvatore Mancusi's daughter in law's death would be more likely to be life ending than career ending. Or at least theoretically; it was a bit hard to continue practicing medicine posthumously. Unfortunately, Claudia Mancusi was really no closer to stable than she had been when she had been admitted to his ICU two nights earlier.

It could be argued that he had tried valiantly to help her. He had. First, he had placed a central line and started Norepinephrine and then Vasopressin to support her blood pressure. Then he had recognized that her increasing oxygen requirements were an ominous sign. So, he placed an endotracheal tube and put her on mechanical ventilation. The problem was he was running out of interventions to try. As much as he knew it really wasn't about him, with each order he wrote, he worried he was truly penning his own death warrant.


	4. Chapter 4: A Baby and You!

**Chapter 4: A Baby and You**

July 11, 1997

Roberto Mancusi felt helpless as he sat by his wife's bed in the Intensive Care Unit at Chicago Mercy Hospital. His family's contributions might make the nurses bend the rules and let him visit outside of regular hours but they couldn't buy his wife a cure. Nothing could.

In spite of his anguish he almost had to laugh at the surreal reality that, even as she was dying, Claudia had been correct. It was a virus. Well, actually two viruses: Influenza A and Enterovirus D. Unfortunately, viruses could also cause sepsis, septic shock, hypoxemic respiratory failure, and myositis. The list had rolled so smoothly off Dr. Thornhart's tongue that Bobby had wanted to punch him. He hadn't done it of course. Dr. Thornhart might seem like an insufferable academic but the word was that the man who had recently completed his Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship at Rush was the best Chicago Mercy had to offer. If anyone could save Claudia and his unborn child it would be him.

_Unborn child?_ Apparently, Claudia was pregnant. Bobbie hadn't known that. He hadn't had an opportunity to ask if Claudia herself had known that. A part of him almost hoped that she just hadn't known because otherwise it begged the question of why hadn't she come to him and happily shared of their blessing? She knew he wanted children. Perhaps that was the point. He had made it clear to her that he wanted children, yet, he had never asked her how she felt about children. He had just presumed that, because he wanted them, they would have them. He could see now that was a problem. Part of honoring his wife had to include some degree of respect. He was afraid he had failed her there by presuming she shared his views. _What if she didn't? What then?_

Those questions were without any easy answers. Bobby knew that. If Claudia didn't want to be pregnant, he didn't think he could force her to be. That couldn't possibly be love. But she was pregnant and he couldn't imagine them destroying a life they had created. So, he found himself praying almost as fervently that Claudia would see the pregnancy as a blessing as he was that Claudia and the baby would survive. Perhaps an all-knowing God could fix what he might have just messed up.


	5. Chapter 5: Chicago's Lipstick Mafia

At a center table in Café Spiaggia, Angela Augustino rolled her eyes as Christine and Mary Ann Campagna ranted about their general distaste for their sister in law, Lisa, while simultaneously continuing their usual sniping game of one upsmanship. Lunch with the Campagna wives was tiresome on a good day. Unfortunately, it had already been anything but a good day; Isabella was late, as usual; and Sylvia was already well into her second Bloody Mary. That left Angela to smile, nod, and try not to make her eye rolling too noticeable. She was Joseph Augustino's wife and that established certain expectations for conduct.

"Did you get the invitation for Mari's party? Can we say tacky?" Mary Ann Campagna asked.

Christine Campagna laughed raucously. "They're renting a bounce house! If that doesn't scream middle class, I don't know what does," she said.

Angela took a gulp of her water. She knew that despite their sniping Christine and Mary Ann were both a bit envious of the 3-million-dollar home in Minnetka Dr. Paul Campagna had moved his family into roughly nine months earlier. She also knew better than mention any of that. She glanced over at Sylvia who had finished her second Bloody Mary and was signaling their waiter for a refill. It was definitely going to be a long day. _Her husband might be the one who took a blood oath but clearly, she was the one who deserved hazard pay!_

XXXXXXXX

Isabella Mancusi stepped into Café Spiaggia fifteen minutes after noon laden down with shopping bags. She loved to shop! For Christmas her husband, Salvatore, had given her a t-shirt which proclaimed, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. The whole family had shared a chuckle at that. Her husband knew her so well. _Or at least that was her story, and she was sticking to it. Salvatore had often told her that one of the things he admired most about her was her discretion._

With a quick glance, Isabella spotted her party, dumped her parcels onto the unsuspecting Maitre D' and then made her way across the restaurant with the confidence that being Salvatore Mancusi's wife gave her. _At least on her good days!_

XXXXXXXX

Christine Campagna made sure she was the first to stand to give Isabella Ventimiglia Mancusi a hug and exchange air kisses when she saw her approaching the table. Never mind that the woman was almost thirty minutes late when she had made a noon reservation, she was married to the current head of the Chicago Outfit. Salvatore Mancusi commanded, and frankly demanded, respect and by extension his wife usurped the same benefits.

"Isabella, it is wonderful to see you. I am so glad you could join us before you left for the summer house," Christine said. The Mancusi Family had some lake house on the shores of Lake Michigan. They frequently spent most of July and all of August there to escape the oppressive Chicago heat. Her own husband, Michael had been up there a few times when there had been concern that the phone lines weren't secure, and business couldn't wait. Christine herself had never been invited to the big Clam Bake they hosted each August but was optimistic that 1997 might be the year for that.

"It is as if the summer has gotten away from us. Are you all set to head up there on Saturday?" Christine's sister in law Mary Ann asked.

"Unfortunately, we may not be going at all this year," Isabella said.

"Well, that is just a shame. Is everything alright?" Mary Ann asked, a little too eagerly, in Christine's opinion.

Isabella didn't respond but Angela Augustino sent a sharp look in Mary Ann's direction. Or at least Christine hoped it was in Mary Ann's direction.

"Bobby's wife is still in the ICU at Chicago Mercy. Remember, I mentioned that we should all contribute towards a tasteful floral arrangement," Angela said.

"Oh dear, do they think she will be alright?" Mary Ann asked.

"Apparently, she has a touch of the flu," Isabella said flatly. Her facial expression conveyed how ridiculous she felt it was that Claudia should need to be in the hospital at all, let alone intensive care, due to the flu.

It wasn't exactly a secret that the Mancusi Matriarch hadn't been in favor of her son's choice of bride. The poor woman had been hospitalized due to palpitations at least three times during Bobby and Claudia's very brief engagement. Reportedly she had been admitted to a NY hospital with stress gastritis after their wedding. Christine had heard that she had been taken directly from the reception via ambulance due to cramps. She had also heard that none of that had deterred Isabella's son from leaving for three weeks in Italy for his honeymoon.


	6. Chapter 6: I'm in Here

July 12, 1997

Claudia Zacchara Mancusi winced when a new wave of chills raged against her aching muscles. She was in agony and she had learned the hard way that it was only worse if she tried to move. Despite that she almost smiled when she heard her husband recount how annoyed his mother was that the annual summer exodus to the lake house had been put on hold due to her condition. _So sorry if my impending death interfered with your vacation, Isabella. Why don't you just pound some sand?_

"But you know Mama, if it isn't all about her then she isn't having it," Bobby said.

Claudia did know that. The ironic thing was that having a self-centered and selfish mother in law was often more convenient than off putting. While Isabella was busy making it all about her, Claudia was free to just exist which was welcome change from life as Anthony Zacchara's daughter. As she reflected on that, once again, everything seemed to fade to black.

XXXXXXXX

Isabella Mancusi clutched her rosary as she exited the confessional. With a somber expression pasted on her face, she took several steps through the narthex into the candle altar in the sanctuary. There she bowed her head, then lit the luminary candle for her precious younger son, Eric Matthew Mancusi.

It had been exactly eleven years since Eric had died in the ICU at Chicago Mercy. The police had assured her that her son had died a hero. They had explained that he had interrupted a robbery and created a distraction to allow the owner of the small corner grocery, a father with two little boys of his own, to escape unharmed. That man had even come to her son's funeral, with his wife who had shown Isabella pictures of their sweet little boys. The pictures had reminded her of when Bobby and Eric had been little.

When she stepped back from the altar, Isabella felt clammy and short of breath. She clutched at her chest as waves of familiar fluttering heaviness overcame her. Gasping and panting she fumbled in her purse and hit her life alert pendant to summon the ambulance.


End file.
